Safety vs. speed traps in New Orleans: An editorial

New Orleans officials should make sure that the city's network of traffic cameras is designed to improve public safety -- not to serve as a system of high-tech speed traps to rake in revenue. Catching speeders and other traffic scofflaws could help make streets safer, but only if cameras are placed in locations where there are legitimate safety issues, such as a high number of accidents.

Times-Picayune archive

It's hard to believe that's the thinking behind some camera locations. The intersection of Henry Clay Avenue and Coliseum Street is a prime example of what seems to be a speed trap. The largest number of citations in New Orleans -- a whopping 38,805 so far this year -- were issued to cars at Henry Clay Avenue and Coliseum Street. That intersection has become notorious with motorists, and no wonder since most streets of its size have a 30-mph speed limit, not a 25-mph limit.

Jackson Avenue at Chestnut Street, which has the second highest number of citations at 24,818, also has a 25 mph speed limit, although the speed limit on most large divided streets is 35 mph.

When an inordinately high number of violations occurs, that ought to prompt questions about whether something is out of whack. Motorists should be able to expect rational speed limits, and indeed, speed limits that make sense are critical to public safety. When that's lacking, it's harder for even the most law-abiding driver to obey.

If generating money is the real goal, however, New Orleans is also missing the mark. The city is doing a terrible job collecting the money it's owed. Of the 244,150 traffic camera citations issued between Jan. 1 and Dec. 15 this year, 133,010 have been paid and 111,140 have not.

Between 35 percent and 40 percent don't pay citations issued for speeding and running red lights at intersections with cameras. Nearly 5,000 of those who haven't paid owe the city at least $1,000, and when the fines and late fees are combined, the amount owed New Orleans is nearly as high as what the city expects to have collected by year's end.

That's not good management, and it further weakens the public safety benefit of the camera program. If traffic scofflaws get away with ignoring a citation, they're unlikely to change their behavior.

City officials say that they are considering ways to pursue non-payers, by sending parking officers into neighborhoods where they normally don't go, changing the law to allow the reporting of outstanding fines to credit bureaus and tracking down the worst offenders and immobilizing their vehicles.

Certainly it's not fair to allow some motorists to skate when many others have paid up. But improving the collection process is only part of what the city needs to do. City officials also need to make sure that all phases of the traffic camera program make sense and make the city a safer place.

The Landrieu administration should also release the names of people who owe more than $500 on tickets. The administration has refused to do so on the grounds that the names are protected by the Driver's Privacy Protection Act. The Times-Picayune, which is seeking the names, contends that the federal law specifically excludes "information on driving violations.'' The state Supreme Court is taking up the issue.

But shielding those names casts further doubt on the integrity of the program, especially since so many city-owned vehicles are among scofflaws who haven't paid their fines. Nearly 400 license plates with the prefix "PP,'' which are generally assigned to police officers, owe a combined $547,580. That includes five of the top 20.

Police officers and other public safety workers who are issued citations while responding to a call can be exempted from paying, if their supervisor signs an affidavit saying that the infraction was due to "exigent circumstances.''

But it's impossible to know whether all of the citations in question fall into that category without complete information, and frankly, the public can't take it on trust.

As for other city workers who get tickets while driving a city car, they're supposed to pay up, and the sheer numbers raise doubts about whether that's happening.

New Orleanians are already frustrated with traffic cameras that seem designed to milk money from average motorists. If city employees or people with connections are getting a pass, the program will lose all credibility.

Speeding and running red lights are reckless habits that endanger people, and there's no reason to sympathize with people who drive aggressively without concern for the law or the safety of others.

Pressuring such drivers to change their bad behavior is a legitimate goal. Turning them -- and more average drivers -- into cash cows is not.